The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) is one of our closest and most longstanding partners in Zimbabwe. Supported by both RWI’s Sida-funded Programme and an EU-funded Action, RWI has been collaborating closely with ZHRC to enhance its human rights capacity and effectively deliver its mandate through targeted support to areas of priority for the Commission.
The cooperation with ZHRC has included training activities on a wide range of human rights issues such as displacement and climate change, corruption and gender equality as well as practical guidance on monitoring and reporting. Additionally, organising roundtables with several national and regional institutions has been key in increasing the Commission’s visibility and interaction with other national and regional stakeholders. These have covered diverse topics such as the human rights of persons with disabilities and addressing violence against migrants. The cooperation also includes support for outreach and awareness-raising activities carried out by the Commission. Over the years, such initiatives have covered issues such as human rights during the Covid-19 pandemic and training on human rights and the Zimbabwean Constitution to recruit correctional officers of the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service. Such initiatives increase awareness of ZHRC’s role and mandate and provide support to the Commission’s ability to deliver on its mandate.
Expanding ZHRC’s access to relevant human rights materials has also been a key goal of the cooperation. Literature support has been provided to the Commission’s documentation centre, while manuals and policies have been developed or updated. These are important resources for the sustainability of results, contributing to the institutionalisation of knowledge. RWI has also supported ZHRC in enhancing its reporting capabilities, which have since become one of the Commission’s key strengths, allowing for more comprehensive and effective reporting. The development of relevant materials has been an important outcome of our current cooperation, including the ZHRC Education, Promotion and Research and Advocacy Manual; the Monitoring and Inspection Manual, the internal policy on gender equality, and two volumes of ZHRC’s Practitioner’s Training Manuals on Constitutional Rights (Volume 1 and 2).